Horns: Why don't they image well?

Ok folks, my local shop finally started stocking Klipsch so I went in and listened to LaScala. 

I liked them. But....

In that room they definitely didn't image like my Focal do, but the definitely produced a solid, convincing image. Where they most notably lacked was width. Depth was decent and convincing, though not as deep as my 936. The image seemed more forward, but I was listening to unfamiliar material. 

They represented VASTLY better sound and value than the flagship Paradigm Persona models I heard next, which the place was selling half off just to get them gone. Given what I heard, I'm not surprised they're still there at that price. 

Like I said before Kosst, you're a good man. The La Scalas were playing in some pretty deep water there and held there own. Imagine optimal setup. Yes, they can image, but the dynamics make for a more lifelike presentation too, don't you think?

The room sounded about as dead as mine at home and roughly the same size. They dynamics didn't particularly strike me while listening, but their absence was obvious while listening to Personas. The reason the dynamics didn't really catch my attention is that they weren't all that much more pronounced than what I'm used to hearing in my Focal. 

If I had a major thing for single ended amps, and bass wasn't a big consideration, I might consider them. But.....

The imaging was 7 out of the 10 referenced to my 936's and the bass was totally out to lunch at 32Hz. The lack of width and slightly diminished depth were where imaging lacked, but the sound stage was certainly tall and very precise. 

So... I have heard good horns that I genuinely like. 

I agree that there isn't any bass way down low. They actually play very well with some solid state amps, and other more powerful tube amps as well. Like any speaker, it brings out different strengths and weaknesses.

When I read certain descriptions about speaker imaging, I’m reminded of Akira Kurosawa’s biopic.

Shooting on a live volcano, he had to add a lot more smoke. Think about that for a sec. He's on a real, actual live volcano in Japan but he had to add smoke for "realism."

The problem was the limitations of film. If you are standing on a volcano, you feel the heat through your body. You don’t need visual or audible clues to tell you that you are standing on top of one of nature’s furnaces.
Translating this to film though, Kurosawa had to add a lot of smoke effects in order to convey the sense of heat that was impossible to transmit through the silver screen.

I often think that there is such a thing as exaggerated imaging in speakers. For instance, listening to a live chorus, can you pick out each singer? I can’t, but with some speakers I feel like I can.

Is this a faithful rendition of the sound anymore? I’m not sure, but perhaps this makes up for the loss of visual perception?

And as you may know, there are some tricks to tweaking a FR like a dip around 2.4 kHz (conveniently often a good crossover point) which can accentuate this.